Board Term Limits Are Reshaping Everwise Credit Union

CEO Jason Osterhage shares what happened when his organization adopted board term limits and added age restrictions for repeat directors.
Jason Osterhage

Jason Osterhage is the CEO of Everwise Credit Union. This guest contribution reflects his personal opinions and experiences.

Top-Level Takeaways

  • One or two influential board directors with vision and commitment can make a big difference.
  • Look for catalyzing forcing functions that create an avalanche of board development.
  • Build up a mental model of good governance. Educate yourself on board excellence.
Jason Osterhage, Everwise Credit Union
Jason Osterhage, CEO, Everwise Credit Union

In my time as CEO at Everwise Credit Union ($5.4B, South Bend, IN), a key focus of ours has been to mature, to govern better, and to be worthy of the trust our members place in us. I believe a pivotal part of that journey, one that set the stage for what’s to come, was the adoption of board term limits in 2023.

But this is just one story of one board.

What we’ve implemented at Everwise is not a one-size-fits-all model, but I do think every credit union CEO can use our experience to reflect on their own boards, governance challenges, and opportunities.

This was not an easy or quick decision. It took a lot of deep reflection, hard conversations, and a willingness to look in the mirror. Today, it’s a critical mechanism for driving accountability and growth.

The Debate Behind The Decision

Our governance journey began, as many do, with some big changes.

A few years ago, a long-serving board member who had chaired the board for 25 years stepped down. Around that time, I was hired as the credit union’s fifth CEO in 93 years. I was also the first to come from outside the organization. That shift brought a fresh perspective to a traditionally stable, internally led organization.

What followed was not a sweeping revolution so much as it was a slow, deliberate rethinking of how we could be doing things.

The new board chair came in energized to lead us forward, and I helped set up a governance operations squad (see org chart below) to provide stronger support. Debates about term limits began in early 2023 with some of the expected objections.

Everwise Governnance Org Chart
Everwise Credit Union created a governance operations team to maintain alignment between its leadership team and its board. Part of this new team included the creation of a C-level role with chief of staff–like responsibilities.

“What if we lose a great director?”

If you’re afraid to lose one person, maybe you don’t have enough strong directors.

“How do we preserve institutional memory?”

If institutional knowledge lives in people’s heads, maybe you need better documentation.

“Shouldn’t we just coach underperformers instead?”

If you don’t actually coach or remove ineffective directors, then term limits are probably necessary.

The board and our leadership team ultimately realized term limits could serve as a “forcing function” for maturity and pipeline development. We settled on five terms of three years, or 15 years total, and no renominations after age 75.

Get Comfortable With Being Uncomfortable

In mid-2023, our board was facing some ongoing difficulties. Although this was uncomfortable, we needed that. Sometimes we should feel uncomfortable — that tension creates urgency and the will to act.

CU QUICK FACTS

EVERWISE CREDIT UNION

HQ: SOUTH BEND, IN
ASSETS: $ 5.4B
MEMBERS: 296,897
BRANCHES: 49
EMPLOYEES: 709
NET WORTH: 9.0%
ROA: 0.62%

Myself, my board chair, and the chair of the governance committee began to seriously reflect on how Everwise was performing. We had to ask, “How strong are we, really?”

Adopting term limits helped ignite a shift in our mindset. They forced our organization to:

  • Plan Ahead — If you know someone’s rotating off the board in three years, you start building a pipeline today.
  • Improve Onboarding — You don’t have 15 years to get a new director up to speed. You have one.
  • Clarify Expectations — If a director is underperforming, you no longer kick the can. There’s a clear time horizon.
  • Distribute Leadership — No one person becomes irreplaceable. Everyone is expected to lead.

In short, term limits require a board to have more structure, intention, and discipline, and that changes how directors engage with one another, with the CEO, and with the organization as a whole.

It is a two-way street, though. A high-functioning, mature board requires more athleticism from the CEO.

Look, a credit union CEO once admitted to me that they were glad their credit union didn’t have term limits because, “I’ve got my board where I want them.” Although some part of me might envy that ease, that’s not what’s best for the credit union. It’s better if the CEO has to hustle, to continuously earn that confidence and trust. That’s a feature, not a bug. It means I can’t get complacent. I am held accountable, too.

It’s OK To Ask For Help

During this process, one thing became clear: We weren’t going to figure this all out on our own, and we shouldn’t try to.

Just as we expect our members to lean on us when making financial decisions, our board needed an outside perspective to challenge assumptions and expand its toolkit.

We joined the National Association of Corporate Directors (NACD), a move that might seem commonplace in the corporate world but is still rare in the credit union space. This made it possible for our directors to access resources, frameworks, and peer conversations that elevated the way they think about board work.

We also brought in a consulting firm to help us take a hard look at our board composition, skills matrix, succession planning, and meeting cadence through the lens of what our organization would need in the next five, 10, or 20 years. It was through this partnership that our board developed the roadmap we’ve been following ever since. The board term limits were just one part of that.

Don’t Be Scared To Evolve

Everwise is now among a relatively small group of state-chartered credit unions in the United States that both compensates board members and imposes board term limits.

Only 18 states currently allow board compensation for credit unions, and federal credit unions can’t compensate or impose formal board term limits under current law. But where it’s possible, I think we in the credit union movement should be asking tougher questions.

None of this is easy. Our board has stumbled. We’ve had hard conversations. This isn’t a one-size-fits-all solution. There are plenty of strong boards out there. This is simply our case study in progress.

Don’t Stop Here. Did you enjoy these insights? If you did, I encourage you to join the NACD and buy the book “Building Better Boards” for yourself and your chair. Read that book together and discuss.

July 28, 2025
CreditUnions.com
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